1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a discharge method, a continuous film formation method, an alignment film formation method, and a method for forming a liquid crystal display device, as well as a head unit, a droplet discharge device, and an electronic apparatus, and particularly relates to a method for reducing variance in thickness.
2. Related Art
Electronic apparatuses in which liquid crystal display devices are used as the display units are widely used. The liquid crystal display devices are formed by laminating two substrates together via a liquid crystal. An alignment film which has undergone an alignment treatment is formed on the substrates. A coating method is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-118633 in which an inkjet method, for example, is used as the method for forming an alignment film on the substrates. This is a method for coating an alignment film solution on the surface of the substrates by discharging the alignment film solution containing an alignment film formation material as droplets from the nozzles while a discharge head (hereinafter referred to as droplet discharge head) in which a plurality of nozzles are arrayed is moved relative to the substrates.
The discharge quantity of the droplets discharged from the nozzles differs depending on the nozzle location. A method for making the discharge quantity uniform is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-196127. In accordance with this method, the discharge quantity can be made uniform by controlling the drive signal for driving the droplet discharge head. For example, the drive voltage in locations where the discharge quantity is high is reduced and the drive voltage in locations where the discharge quantity is low is increased. The discharge quantity is made uniformed by driving the droplet discharge head using a plurality of drive signals. In other words, a film having a uniform thickness is formed by making the discharge quantity of the nozzles uniform in the droplet discharge head and performing discharge.